2013年12月27日星期五

Five Simple Rules to Play My Best

As a poker professional, I learned the game mainly through hours and hours at the table.

Marathon sessions day after day were normal for me. So getting into a poker mind-set was second nature as I drove to Commerce, the Bike or the Bellagio.

Now, though, I've become sort of a poker wanderer. I am busy with other priorities and I rush to an airport, travel to a hotel, then make my way to a tournament.

Playing your best when you haven't been playing a lot is one of the toughest aspects of tournament poker for most of us, me included cheat poker.
Whether you're flying in to Vegas for a big poker weekend or playing in your first WSOP event, here are a few things I do to make sure I'm ready to play my best.
1. Get plenty of rest. I see sleepy newbies at the table all the time, and I'm sure many have been up playing cash games the evening before.
It is exciting to play live, especially in a venue where there are tournaments going on. But being tired when you're walking into the pressure cooker of a tournament isn't the right preparation. This is especially important if you are traveling across time zones and may be jet-lagged.
If you can afford the time off, try to get to the location of the tournament at least a day early, just so you can push through the initial excitement of it all.
2. Check out the cardroom. I must confess this is something I have gotten burned with in the past. It's easy to rush into the room as the tournament is starting, then become frustrated by the room situation.
Frequently, a major tournament stretches the size of the room, with too many tables and too many players stuffed into too small an area. The room might be cold, hot, stuffy, whatever. It's best to know about it prior to the event, then physically and mentally prepare yourself for whatever the situation will be.
The EPT Warsaw event, for example, is notorious for being in a very tight room, so it's best to be ready for that before you walk into the room.
3. Prepare my stuff. I make sure my iPod is all charged up and up-to-date with the latest songs I like, and I recharge my phone as well. Take a jacket or sweatshirt to be ready for the cold. Double-check your sunglasses and any other things you might use.
Oh, and there are snacks to bring as well! The Liz Lieu Poker Diet is for another post, but bring any munchies that will keep you focused.
4. Clear my mind. I've known a couple players who will actually write down business and personal things on their mind, then tear them up to visualize clearing their mind. You want 100% of your mental energy focused on poker.
Most beginners bring much less of their mind and spirit to the table, losing numerous tells and hand details that would benefit them later.
5. Pamper myself with gifts. This is a time to celebrate having a chance at a big payday, so look at it like that. I've seen many new tournament players so stressed out they act irrationally or don't act at all marked cards.
This is a time to be serious, but it is also a time to have fun. Get yourself some special thing that will bring you luck and good energy at the table.
Some people have checklists, while others come to the table with a game plan of what to do. I don't do either, and I especially don't believe in a game plan. It is important in a tournament to understand the dynamics of the table and act accordingly, rather than just focusing on yourself too much.
The only exception I would make is if you're a player who's aware of a serious flaw in your game. Maybe you play too many hands in early position or try to steal blinds too early in an event. Reminding yourself what to avoid is good, but try to keep it as simple as possible.
Follow these simple rules, and you'll be sure to be prepared from the very first hand you are dealt. And that's really all any of us can ask for. Here's hoping I can put my own rules to good use here in Warsaw.
Stop by www.lizlieu.net, or drop by www.Chilipoker.com whenever you have a chance. Cheers!
--Liz Lieu
Pro Poker Player- Poker Diva

2013年12月17日星期二

ADZ124 Epic Life Story Part 3

Matt "ADZ124" Marafioti is back with the third installment of his poker life story. Be sure to catch up with Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't already.
One night I was trying to chat up a girl from Argentina who didn’t really speak English, while playing 200/400 PLO for one orbit (not knowing a thing about the game).
In that first orbit I got a dry AA and made it $1,400, perkyshmerky raised to $4,400 and I made it $14,400, we ended up playing a $98k pot on 10-9-2 flop with 26k in the pot. He had K-J-T with a flush draw so I was in bad shape and lost.
That week cost me another $150 k total, the downswing now totaled $700,000 and was by far my biggest downswing yet at just 19 years old. I would say a good $250k was wasted on PLO alone.
From February to June I spoke to no one. I sat in my parents basement and grinded my ass off. $4k here $4k there, slow and steady. I built my rolls up to about $500k online but by the end of the year I felt my life was passing me by and wanted a girlfriend again infrared contactlenses.
I lent a friend $30k on stars and he lent me his $280,000 mercedes, seemed like a fair trade. He had Ferraris and every car you could imagine. Anyways, one day he left the country. He left the cars and everything else behind and stiffed me for my $30k totally out of the blue and got arrested at the border.
It turned out he was the guy who created the software that read your pin over the ATM machines. If you see him at the Commerce in LA or in Vegas let me know and I will reward you. His name is Patrick Khalifan.
I had to give the Mercedes back to the leasing company but I had this new girl I was trying to impress so I went out and bought an Aston Martin the next week.
I was paying less attention to poker and good 200/400 games were actually running at the time on Stars with Steve_Harris from Toronto playing trick cards a lot. I missed most of these games, then decided one night after a steak dinner it would be a good idea to two-table durrr at 100/200 Hold’em on Stars.
I lost $160,000 to him in an hour and a half in front of this guy I barely know. It was so pathetic.
I then decided to try and be all Hollywood and do this reality show with two other friends of mine who were willing to make a long term investment in it. They thought it was a good, unique idea. So did I.

Ain't Nuthin' but a Gee Thang - Poker Update

Courtney Gee is back with her first weekly poker update. Courtney's on a quest to never work another 9-5 job and she's not letting Black Friday stop her.
If you haven't already, get up to date with the storyline with Courtney's intro posts here and here.
Hi everyone! I played four days of online poker since the last time I wrote:
# MTTs: 132
Average buy-in: $30.20
Hours: 31.5
Net result: -$537.39
I lost a lot less than the previous week, and overall I’m pretty happy with it. It might seem weird that I’d be happy about a losing week, but the truth is that this is a miniscule loss when it comes to MTTs.
If I only lost $537 every time I had a losing week, I’d be rich in no time!
A big reason for the low loss amount is the fact that I have been playing
marked cards as many $36 turbo 180 sit-and-gos as possible. They fill up fairly regularly during Euro peak hours, especially on weekends. This past Sunday I registered all of them between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm (PST) and got in nine.
The 180s help a lot because they are easy to final table since they 1) have small fields and 2) are incredibly soft. Being insanely soft has a lot to do with Black Friday. While they were obviously very beatable back when Americans were still playing, a lot of the 180 grinders are now gone. This is really good news for someone like me because 180s are great for reducing MTT variance.
Looking back at my spreadsheets from the four days I played last week, it looks like most of my decent cashes came from $36 180s. I made 3 final tables and came 2nd in one of them. These cashes really help while waiting around for a bigger score from one of the other tourneys that I play on a regular basis.
Another reason I have started playing as many 180s as possible is that they make the mental challenge of playing MTTs a lot easier to deal with. Tournaments can be difficult to play on a regular basis because they obviously so often end in disappointment.
Big final tables can be few and far between, so making a bunch of small field final tables really helps emotionally while waiting around for a bigger score.
I have stopped playing on Full Tilt Poker for the time being cheat poker. It is my personal preference to stick with PokerStars exclusively while all the Black Friday stuff is going on. Once Full Tilt has paid all of its American players and have established that they are, indeed, business as usual without the US, I might go back.
Without Full Tilt tournaments in my schedule, I no longer have $75 freeze-outs at my disposal, and I have one less $109 tournament in my schedule. This has caused my average buy-in to drop quite a bit, and I imagine it will stay this way for a while barring any major bankroll increase.
Three days of poker coming up and hopefully I can actually write about some profit next week. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!


2013年12月16日星期一

Final Thoughts on the Big Game – Courtney Gee Poker Update

I wanted to write an entry with my thoughts about the Big Game.
In case you don’t already know, I was recently featured as a Loose Cannon in the second season of the PokerStars Big Game.
Go to the start of this blog to see a couple entries from February, back when the show was taped.
Let me first talk about the pros at my table.
Back in February I specified my dream line up: “Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Doyle Brunson, and a rich businessman.”
I have to pat myself on the back and say that three out of five ain’t bad! Both Daniel and Phil were at my table, along with Rick Salomon (the so-called “rich businessman”).
The bad news was that the other two infrared ink players, Bryn Kenney and Randy Lew, were both poker superstars.
When I found out they were going to be playing, I was not happy since I knew they would make the table even tougher.
I had an extremely fun time, though. The footage that made TV makes it appear I didn’t talk much, and it’s probably because I tend to keep quiet while there’s a hand going on.
In between hands there was a ton of great table talk, though.
I told Rick that I love movie stars, I confessed to Daniel that I would snap marry Bono (that was before I got married, obv), and I called my fiancé an unemployed bum (by accident, though, I swear).
Overall I am happy with how I played. I have received some criticism for playing too tight, and I certainly can’t disagree with this sentiment.
At the time, however, it felt like the right thing to do. The entire table was extremely loose, and I can’t remember any hand that got to me in late position unopened.
I am not a cash player, so playing pots with garbage or without position was certainly asking for trouble.
I feel that my strategy gave me the best chance to avoid making big mistakes while waiting for a good opportunity to play a big pot and book a profit.
In the end I was able to get in the bulk of my stack as a 4 to 1 favorite, which I am extremely happy about. It was very interesting for me to watch my expression on TV as the flop came down because I wasn’t sure how I reacted.
While I looked less stricken than I thought I’d look, my body language clearly showed how disappointed I was. At the time I remember my heart sinking and hearing a collective “ohhhh…” around me from the producers, crew, and Amanda Leatherman.
While I wasn’t particularly looking forward to my shows being aired, I have to say that I am relieved that it’s finally over marked cards.
Now people won’t be looking at me trying to guess whether or not I won on the Big Game based on what I am buying, how happy I look, or what tournaments I’m playing!
The biggest thing I learned by participating in the production of a “reality” TV show is that the producers can make people appear any way they want.
I have to admit that I will never watch another TV show again without looking at the way someone is portrayed and wondering, “Is that how she REALLY is in real life? Or did they just want her to appear that way?”
I would like to thank everyone that has supported me since I found out I was selected for the Big Game.
Special thanks to Ben Sulsky, Thomas Leudke, and Isuru Silva for giving me hours of help with hand histories and cash game strategy.
Thanks to Melanie Urbanski for helping me make an awesome audition video. Thanks to my husband for all the emotional support.
I’m finally back to some online poker this week after two weeks off in Vegas for the WSOP.
I’ll be back next week to let you know how it goes. Good luck at the tables!


2013年12月12日星期四

Last Two Prelims Before the Main Event

I made a rare decision to skip online tournaments last Sunday to play the $3k Triple Chance tournament for a couple of reasons.

First, I feel that I've played very well throughout most of the WSOP with a few deep runs, and have little to show for it marked cards.

Second, the $3k NL is the tournament in which I've had my closest run to a final table (even though I consider my 118th place finish in the 2007 Main Event my best WSOP finish), finishing 13th place last year when John Phan won his first bracelet.
This tournament was structured the same way as the PLO tournament I described in an earlier blog this Series. Basically, you get 3k starting chips and two "bullets" that represent your "free rebuys." If you don't use them by the end of the third level, you get them as add-ons anyway.

Unlike the PLO tournament, however, I decided to take all of my rebuys as soon as I sat down. The nature of the game is very different, plus I have a lot more experience in NL than PLO.

I had a pretty tough starting table, and ended up semi-coolering Theo Tran with As-Ac vs Ah-Kc on a king-high flop. I got up to 15k from 9k there, but ended up going busto in a 32k pot to Chris Bell later on with As-Kc against his Ks-Kh easy cards tricks.

Event 54 - $1,500 No Limit

Well, here's a short and sad story. There was a middle-aged guy proudly rocking his FullTilt Iron Man Freeroll t-shirt and a WSOP hat who picked up A-A against my K-K in the second level after I had been chipping up nicely at a very soft table.

In many ways, this was a pretty brutal ending to my preliminary events at the Series. I have big plans for the main event though, and have been having a blast with my time off. I feel great going into Day 1d of the Main Event tomorrow!

I'm a Lock Poker Pro!

Well it's now 4:21am and I've officially given up hope of going to bed before my flight leaves from the airport in Vegas at 9:10am, so I might as well get a blog post in before I get to Jersey. I'll sleep when I'm dead I suppose. Oh, and on the flight.

Anyway, I'm really excited about what I mentioned in the title. Lock Poker, a member of the Cake Network, recently signed a group of pros including myself, Jason Young, Lee Childs, Mike 'GoLeafsGoEh' Leah, Joe 'JoeytheB' Brooks, Kyle 'kwob20' Bowker and Jonathan Jaffe marked cards.

Eric 'Rizen' Lynch, who was the first Lock Pro before the rest of us were signed, was also announced as VP of Product Development in the same press release.
I'd also like to give a big thanks to my agent, Randy Kasper, founder of Poker Players International, for helping forge this deal.
After 21 years of reaping the benefits of being a white American male, it finally worked against me when it came time to get signed by an online site.
This was especially difficult since the UIGEA took effect as my career really began to take off, and as a result of the legislation the major sites stopped marketing in the USA due to the difficulties of getting funds online in America.
Some may say that it was highhhhh time that it worked against me, and I say fair enough.
But now that's all over anyway, and I'm really looking forward to working with a slightly smaller and newer site. It gives me the opportunity to work with the site as cheat poker they grow and use my experience in the industry to help them along the way.
Not to mention picking up a few dimes along the way. In the few weeks that I've been a Lock Pro I've already made several final tables with two wins, a $109 and a $55, both freezeouts. With the help of these wins I'm already up nearly $10k...not a bad start to my Lock career.
Well, I might as well finish packing since my flight leaves in a few hours. It's going to be a chaotic month of deciding whether the online or Borgata tournaments will be juicier for the day...what a tough life!
It's the scheduling equivalent of having too many chips in a live tournament and not knowing where to put them....ahhh these are the problems we long to have!
I'll leave you with a few words from the owner of Lock Poker...
"We are thrilled to welcome this incredible group of players as part of the Lock Poker family," said Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson. "We will be integrating them into all aspects of the business. These pros are the insight we need to really create the best online poker experience worldwide."
-- Matt Stout

2013年12月9日星期一

Naoya Kihara Wins a Monster

We were just cruising past Naoya Kihara’s and happened to witness a huge hand play out.
The board read J T 7 K T with infrared marked cards a considerable amount of chips already in the pot.
Kihara’s opponent fired 3,125 into the pot and Kihara responded by raising to 11,250. The other player decided to just call, which proved to be a wise decision as Kihara immediately revealed J T for the rivered boat.
The other player could only shake his head as he showed a A T for trips, not nearly enough to win.
After the hand Kihara soared to 59,000 chips. The first Japanese bracelet winner is having a great Day 1b.